PHC issues contempt notice to officials for non-compliance

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday issued contempt of court notice to the secretary Defence and secretary Interior, directing them to submit reply and explain why the court’s decision about compensation to a family from Hangu was not implemented.

The family had lost six members and eight others sustained injuries in bombing by the jetfighters of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) on June 11, 2009.

A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Muhammad Ibrahim Khan issued contempt of court notice to Secretary Defence Lt Gen (r) Zamirul Hassan Shah, Secretary Interior Arif Ahmad Khan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Secretary Abid Saeed, asking them to submit reply at the next hearing as why the court order was not complied with.

The bench issued notice in a contempt of court petition filed by Khan Asghar, a resident of Zargari area in Hangu district, through his lawyer Muhammad Ilyas Orakzai.

The lawyer submitted that the petitioner sent copies of the high court’s decision to the secretaries of Defence and Interior ministries and KP chief secretary on July 18, 2016, but to no avail.

He said the authorities concerned failed to comply with the court order.Khan Asghar filed the petition to seek diyat amount from the government for the death of his six family members.

The slain included his two daughters Hakeema and Asia and son Abdul Hameed, two grandsons one-year-old Muhammad Bilal and one and a half years old Abdullah. The federal government had been directed to compensate the family under the Shuhada Package.

A division bench comprising the chief justice and Justice Mohammad Younas Thaheem on March 24, 2016 had ordered the federal government to compensate family within three months.

The court had also ordered the government to remove an unexploded missile that landed near the house of the petitioner.The court quoted an identical case titled “Qabal Shah vs Federation of Pakistan” wherein the government had paid compensation to the legal heirs of the people killed in the airstrikes conducted by the PAF in Tirah valley in Khyber Agency. “Since it was an accidental airstrike by the PAF jetfighters it is the responsibility of the Ministry of Defence to compensate them,” the court order had said.